The morning began with golden rays of the sun flaring out like flame into the sky. As dawn melted into early morning, Dr. Holly Marten awoke and prepared for work. She brushed her dark, red hair into a ponytail on the back of her head, but then took it out and let it spill over her shoulders and frame her small, white face. She wore a loosely fitted electric blue blouse with a contrasting floral knee-length skirt. The last detail was black flats embellished with diamonds. She gathered her work bag and exited her apartment, greeting weary neighbors with a congenial wave as she descended ten flights of stairs. Pushing open the front double doors, Holly found her ride already parked outside the building.
Douglas Fargo rolled down the window and greeted her. She opened the goozack and sat in the front next to Fargo.
"Would you like me to play a radio station?" Tabitha's voice sounded from the dashboard.
"No thanks, Tabitha." Tabitha was the name of Fargo's artificial intelligence solar-powered car. They continued riding in silence until they passed Global Dynamics, where an array of cars was already parked despite the early hour.
"Why aren't we stopping?" Holly looked back at the tall building that was GD.
"Didn't I tell you?" Holly shook her head. "A few days ago, Taggart found something strange out in the woods. I had it moved to Lab 19. Apparently, Henry thinks there might be a connection between the two artifacts." The car was jostled as the Smart Asphalt gave way abruptly to the woodland trail and Fargo took the wheel.
"Am I cleared for Lab 19?" Holly asked anxiously. She had never been to Lab 19 but knew that it housed a great artifact that had been unburied three years earlier.
"Yeah, you have all your security clearance back since you regained your memory." Fargo smiled as he finished the sentence. Until recently, when Holly had used the resurrected Story Catchers to regain her mysteriously buries memories, she had completely forgotten everything that had occurred since she had come to Eureka, including her relationship with Dr. Fargo. Now, she couldn't imagine not remembering everything they had gone through.
As they continued down the trail, the trees grew thicker and thicker and the darkness pressed in on them. Finally, the car slowed to a halt as they reached the clearing that was Lab 19. Holly stepped out the goozack. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. A huge circle towered over the clearing, almost as high as the tall, thin-trunked trees that stretched into the sky. It looked like a slightly rusted metal, split into sectors, each marked with a somewhat indistinct symbol. Holly slowly approached the large circle and felt the inside with her palms.
"What is it?" Holly whispered. Realizing that no one could hear her, she repeated her question. "What is this?"
"The better question would be when it is." They turned around to see Larry approaching.
"Larry, that doesn't even make sense." Fargo rolled his eyes. Larry just shrugged and took a bite out of his donut.
Holly stepped away from the huge circle. "What does it do?"
"We don't really know… yet. We think that this might help us find the answer." Fargo gestured at another device across the clearing. It had what looked like a red orb in the center of a round panel with symbols like the ones around the large circle.
"Wow." She smiled. "So you think—" Holly broke off as the symbols around the circle began to light up. "Has this happened before?" Fargo shook his head and slowly drew closer to the giant ring, while Holly backed away.
It all happened in seconds. As Fargo neared the artifact, a great wave lashed out like a fist of water, and then retreated, causing water to ripple in the ring like a pool. Awestruck, Larry, without looking, reached into a jacket pocket, pulled out a glazed donut and bit into it viscously. But there was something wrong. Fargo was backing away from the gate slowly, limping and holding his arm in an odd manner. It was bad.
When he grew near enough, Holly could see that his sleeve had been singed off and angry red burns covered his skin underneath.
"Are you alright?" Holly jumped and Larry dropped his donut as a short-haired woman in a uniform called out to Dr. Fargo.
"No," Douglas breathed through his teeth. She and a tall black man hurried to Fargo's side.
"What happened?" The woman examined the wounds. Holly shook her head in confusion.
"It appears he was too close to the gate when it was activated." The black man reported, and Holly noticed that his forehead was branded with an odd gold marking. His voice was calm and deep.
"Hold still," Advised the woman, holding a syringe. Fargo yelped and jumped back. He felt the sharp pain of the needle before he was enclosed in blackness.
(it has only been like an hour, so the people at GD don't know anything about Sg-1 yet.)
"He's waking up."
"Oh, thank God."
"Where's the Sheriff?"
"He's on his way."
"You're really from another planet?"
The words tumbled into Fargo's head, barely distinguishable. He tried to move, but his muscles ached. Finally, he managed to raise his eyelids to the blinding light in the infirmary.
"How are you feeling?" He saw Allison hovering nearby.
"You poisoned me! She poisoned me!" Fargo gasped.
"Major Carter was unaware of the effects of the medication with your species." Ignoring the confused and suspicious glances, the black man continued. "I assure you this was unintentional." Tense silence gripped the infirmary.
"Species?" Allison raised her eyebrows.
"Amazing," They all turned to look at the short-haired woman as she examined a medical book with two other strangers. "This text is almost identical to written English."
"Isn't that normal?" Another stranger asked. "I mean, they speak English."
"Well, Jack, most of the species we encounter have some sort of hieroglyphic written language. The similarity here is, well, it's incredible!" A man with oversized glasses commented.
"Similarity?" Douglas Fargo sat up in the bed and reach for his thick, black-framed glasses. "That is English."
"Well, I see we're getting off to a good start." One of the strangers, referred to previously as 'Jack' commented. "Jack O'Neill, US Air Force."
"I am Teal'c—"
"Did you just say US Air Force?" Allison interrupted the man, Teal'c, suspiciously.
"Yeah. I'm Daniel Jackson, and we're from a planet called Earth." said the man with oversized glasses. An odd silence enclosed the room, between two groups of earthlings.
The goozack suddenly burst open so quickly it collided with a nearby rack. "Hey," said Sheriff Jack Carter. "What did I miss?"
"Jack?" The short-haired woman whirled around to face the sheriff.
"Sam?" Jack was surprised to see her here of all places, especially when he hadn't seen her in almost 2 years.
"You know her?" Fargo's eyes widened. "You knew an alien and you never told me?"
"Fargo, this is my cousin."
"And we then use the DhD to dial home." Daniel Jackson finished explaining for the third time. "That's the new artifact you found." He added.
"So, you go to other worlds, like for your job?" Fargo asked for the third time.
"Coolest job ever!" commented Larry, whom nobody had previously noticed, through a mouthful of donut.
"It does explain some things." Jack Carter fixed his gaze on Samantha Carter, who cast her eyes down.
"What it doesn't explain is how both of us believe we live on Earth." offered Jack O'Neill.
"Perhaps the gate that was unearthed here was just another built on Earth by the ancients." Teal'c suggested.
"So, this gate was found three years ago, correct?" Sam asked, and received several nods. "What else can you tell me about when this was found?"
"Well, it was—" Fargo broke off. They couldn't possibly explain to these strangers that this 'gate' had been discovered in an altered reality, therefore only other versions of themselves had witnessed the discovery. "We were… It's classified. What I can tell you is that I—none of us, well, except Larry, I guess—were here when this happened."
"So you have no idea of its origins?" Jack Carter shook his head and Fargo shrugged.
"Why couldn't there be another gate here on Earth?" Jack Carter asked. The members of SG-1 exchanged glances.
"We've… considered the possibility." Sam replied awkwardly.
"So, assuming this is just another gate on Earth, what do we do with it?"
Sam shrugged. "I guess that's up to you. There's a huge universe out there, and you don't have to wait for it to come to you."
Holly and Fargo stood before the rippling blue event horizon, inches away from their journey, but millions of light years away from their destination.
"One small step for man," Fargo remarked, and Holly smiled. "It just makes me wonder… if we're ready for a leap this giant."
"We have always been ready for this." Holly took his hand. "There's so much more out there than we ever imagined."
"So let's get started." And with that, the two stepped through the wormhole, leaving only ripples. Once the last trace of flaming red hair had disappeared, the watery surface evaporated, leaving nothing but trees to be seen through the circle.